Israel’s ambassador to Turkey presents credentials to Erdogan

Following six years of severed ties, Israeli ambassador to Turkey begins post; Turkish counterpart to begin post in Tel Aviv in coming weeks

Israel reinstated its ambassador to Turkey on Monday, the first ambassador to Ankara since severed ties between Israel and Turkey from 2010.

Ambassador Eitan Naeh presented his credentials to Turkish President Recep Erdogan on Monday in Ankara. Ambassador Naeh began his post last week and had previously worked for the Israeli embassy in Ankara from 1993 until 1997.

Naeh stated on his appointment “I am very happy to be back in Turkey as ambassador. We have a lot of work to do.” He thanked Turkey for its assistance during the firefighters in Israel in November. Turkey acted as a first responder, sending a firefighting aircraft on November 24th to northern Israel to assist in efforts. Naeh thanked Turkey, stating “I want to thank Turkey for the support and the aid it sent Israel fighting fires last week. We have a history of helping each other.”

On the future of Turkey-Israel relations, Naeh stated “We will build the relations, continue the cooperation that already exists, identify areas of cooperation where we will want to cooperate… everything step after step.”

The diplomatic resolve is a result of the Turkey-Israel reconciliation agreement from June of this year. The agreement serves as an end to severed ties and was introduced and approved by the Turkish Parliament in August 2016.

Mid-November, Erdogan approved the appointment of Turkey’s Ambassador to Israel, Kemal Okem. He is expected to begin his post by the end of this year.